You knew yesterday was going to be the day when the first news of the day was that Mike Morrison had been waived.

The Edmonton Oilers had to make room to do the deal for Dwayne Roloson. They also had to tell Ty Conklin that he'd been sent down to Hartford. But, Conklin, who had already been waived through the league earlier this season, will be called back up and sent to San Jose today.

REAL SETBACK

Morrison is the one who had the real career setback yesterday.

A goaltender with a 10-4-2 record, waved to make way for a goaltender with a 6-17-1 record?

A goaltender with a 2.83 goals against average waived to make room for a goalie with a 3.00 goals against average?

Statistically, this is wild and crazy stuff.

You'd think Morrison would want to bounce his mask off the floor of the bench half way to the roof of Rexall Place like Conklin did the night before when he was pulled and Morrison was brought in from the bullpen to replace him for the shootout against the Dallas Stars.

He handled it so well it was beyond belief.

"It's a sad day for me," he said.

"But it was something I could maybe see coming. This organization was looking to make a move and I'm the least experienced.

"Even Tuesday night when I was skating under the derrick before the game, I thought about it. I thought about appreciating what could be my last couple days here for now.

"I'm just going to keep battling like I always have," said the 27-year-old Medford, Maine, netminder.

He said he has no gripe with Kevin Lowe, Craig MacTavish or anybody in the Oilers organization.

"Was I given a fair shake? Absolutely!

"In many ways, this has been a dream season for me. To everybody else, it's been up and down. But I've been in the NHL. If you told me at the start of the season I was going to be playing in the NHL ...

STILL PROUD

"Right now, I have to hang in there for 24 hours. If I'm picked up, great. If not then I'm still part of this organization and that's great, too."

Morrison said he's keeping his head up. "I'm proud of myself."

MacTavish told him he should be.

"I told him he's made a lot of progress since the first day of camp. He got some experience. I think he has a good opportunity to be back."